Description
Book SynopsisOn January 8, 1982, the AT&T divestiture consent decree was announced. A company with $150 billion in assets--more than General Motors, General Electric, U.S. Steel, Eastman Kodak, and Xerox combined--the country's second largest employer with over a million employees, and the nations most widely held security with over three million shareholders, was to be broken up on the first day of 1984. Many economists, government officials, people in the telecommunications industry, and media observers predicted dire consequences for the best telephone system in the world. Years later, some experts claim the divestiture has been a great success. According to present AT&T Chairman and CEO, Robert Allen, long-distance rates have dropped, local rates have not increased as dramatically as predicted, more households are on the network, other long-distance and equipment companies now effectively compete wit hAT&T, and consumers have received more choices in products, better values, and lower prices.
Trade Review[After the Breakup] represents the best source of information, by top experts, reviewing the events in U.S. telecommunications during the 1980s... It is, by definition, an important volume. Anyone interested in this field... will have to read this book. -- Paul Teske, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Table of ContentsPreface About the Contributors Introduction - Barry G. ColeI. Policymakers and Policy Initiatives 1. Questions and Answers with the Three Major Figures of Divestiture -William F. Baxter and Charles L. Brown with Stanley M. Besen and Henry Geller -Judge Harold H. Greene 2. Policy Directions for the Future -William G. McGowan -Alfred C. Sikes -Sharon L. NelsonII. Structural Environment 3. Regulatory and Institutional Change -Glen O. Robinson -Philip L. Verveer -A. Gray Collins -Edward F. Burke 4. The State of Competition in Telecommunications -Bruce L. Egan and Leonard Waverman -Stanford L. Levin -Lee L. Selwyn -Nina Cornell -Martin G. Taschdjian -John R. WoodburyIII. Service Issues 5. Pricing of Telephone Services -Roger G. Noll and Susan R. Smart -Ronald G. Choura -Dennis L. Weisman -Susan D. Fendell 6. Service Quality -Rowland L. Curry -Jonathan M. Kraushaar -Robert M. Gryb -John R. Ake -Thomas E. Buzas, Stanford V. Berg, and John G. Lynch, Jr. -Lawrence P. Cole 7. Innovation and New Services -Walter G. Bolter and James W. McConnaughey -Elliot E. Maxwell -Jerrold Oppenheim -Bailey M. Geeslin -Thomas W. Cohen 8. Advances in Network Technology -Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr. -Bruce C. N. Greenwald -A. Daniel KelleyIV. Economic Issues 9. Telephone Penetration -Lewis J. Perl and William E. Taylor -Bridger M. Mitchell -Alexander Belinfante -Gene Kimmelman and Mark N. Cooper 10. Labor, Employment, and Wages -Wallace Hendricks and Susan C. Sassalos 11. Efficiency and Productivity -Robert W. Crandall -M. Ishaq Nadiri -Gerald W. Brock -Gerald R. Faulhaber 12. Issues of International Trade -Kenneth G. Robinson, Jr. -Eli M. Noam -Robert T. Blau -Michael D. Baudhuin -Timothy J. BrennanIndex
